The Phoenix
by WinterAlice
Summary: When Harry's relatives pick him up at the train station after his first year of Hogwarts he doesn't like the looks on their faces at all. They gleefully inform him Lily had an affair with Tony Stark who happens to be his biological father. Just as Harry was starting to get use to magic he's swept up into a world of aliens, advanced technology and even more magic. IRONSTRANGE.
1. Prologue

**Warning: Not for fans of Dumbledore. Language. Brief talk of past sexual encounters.**

 **I OWN NOTHING!**

On a quite Sunday afternoon in the residence of number four Private Drive Mr. and Mrs. Dursley sat down for their afternoon tea. Dudley was off playing with his friends trying to make the last hours of his spring break as fulfilling as possible. The two adults had quite enjoyed the holiday with their son and were already making plans for the summer, but one little detail kept getting in the way.

"We can't take him back Petunia," Vernon Dursley growled. "For the first time we have been able to enjoy some quality time with Dudley without the little freak hanging over us. I can't stand to go back to the way things were before, I just can't. Plus, now he'll know how to use his freakishness. He's dangerous."

"I agree," Petunia said with pursed lips. "Trust me if there was anywhere else for him to go, he's be gone."

"Then lets just drop him off at an orphanage and be done with it!" Vernon exclaimed angrily, his face starting to turn blue.

"We've been over this," his wife answered annoyed as she narrowed her eyes. "That crackpot fool that runs the school he goes to has us under his thumb for now. Every normal person I've tried to pass the boy off to gets their memory wiped and the freak always ends up back here. The only person that might be able to take him would be someone from the freaks father side, one of their _kind_ , that the headmaster wouldn't be able to steamroll over so easily. Sadly no one has ever come forward."

"There has to be _someone_ ," Vernon stressed not willing to give up.

Petunias hands tighten around her mug as she caught sight of Dudley through the front window. Her baby was saying goodbye to his friends out front, face flushed and eyes bright with happiness. She couldn't stand for him to be upset in anyway, much less in the constant danger he would be in if the freak came home. The incident with the pig tail from the summer before still gave him nightmares occasionally.

"There is one place I could check," the woman said hesitantly. "My sister left a truck of her things for the boy. It was left on the door step a few days after the freak and no matter how many times I threw it away it always came back so I eventually locked it in the attic. I've been to scare to touch it. My sister used to booby trap all her things with… _it_ so I couldn't get into them. But she left it for her young son so it's probably safe."

Vernon didn't answer, instead he rushed for the stairs, glee and hope vibrating off him in waves. Even with his heavy girth he climbed up into the attic in record time, easily spotting the truck in a corner now that he knew to look for it. The man was already carelessly throwing clothing and books out of the case by the time his wife caught up to him. Petunia's eyes zeroed in on one of the books laying innocently on the floor that Vernon had overlooked but she easily recognized as a diary. The woman was quick to snatch it up and start leafing through without a thought for her sister's privacy. She started from the back, the last entry Lily made before she died, and worked her way from there. Lily had written things about the war, baby Harry, troubles with her husband and another dirty little secret that weighed on her as Harry grew. The kind of dirty little secret Petunia hadn't known she'd been looking for but was delighted to find none the less. Lily had an affair. And Harry wasn't her husband's child at all. In fact, if the diary was to be believed Harry was the child of a man who was still very much alive. Someone who maybe, just maybe, could go up against the headmaster and win.

* * *

 **So, there's the prologue! Just something that's been swimming in my mind for a little bit.**

 **For fans of Within I'm hoping that if I have two or three stories to work on I wouldn't get burned out and lose my muse so easily. I'm hoping that having different fandoms to jump between will keep things fresh. There might be a Percy Jackson story or short story in the making, maybe a PJO/ Avenges crossover with the same idea as this one except with Percy instead of Harry. Sally dies and somehow Percy ends up in the care of Tony and Stephen who help him through his adventures much like they'll help Harry in this one. I'm thinking maybe Sally and Stephen can be distant cousins…It's a bit of a stretch for authorities to reach out to a distant relative like a first cousin once removed like I'm thinking, but with Percy's fathers side completely unknown and Stephen being the only family member left on Sally's side who could keep Percy out of the system I think it might work. What do you guys think?**

 **Also what do you guys think of this story? I can't find any stories with Stephen being a paternal or mentor figure to Harry and it's just to perfect to not exist. And I can't find enough when the same is true with Tony. There're some really good ones out there but nowhere near enough to satisfy me. So why not have both? Plus I diehard ship IronStrange.**


	2. Chapter 1

"Boss, there's a situation in the lobby you should be aware of."

Tony Stark surfaced from the designs he'd been busy sketching, brown hair messy and face grease stained. He blinked owlishly, reajusting his eyes as Friday, his A.I., brought up the video feed from the lobby on a nearby monitor. It seemed security were trying to escort a hysterically livid couple out the door that were demanding to see him. The horse like woman screeched shrilly and bat at an officer with her purse while her obese partner tried to ram through the four men that were attempting to force him out the building like a bull.

"What do those two want?"

Stephen Strange, Tony's wonderful sorcerer, genius, former neurosurgeon fiancé, stood over his shoulder as he peered amused at the screen from over Tony's head. The inventor tried not to let himself melt into a puddle of goo when a scared hand came up to gently massage the back of his neck.

It was safe to say Tony hadn't been in a good place going into the whole Accords fiasco and had been in a much worse place coming out. Before he had suffered from numerous nightmares, PTSD, and insomnia all the while trying to keep the then current Avengers from breaking to many international laws while having to pick up the pieces and bare the responsibly when they did. Not to mention he went through it all on his own, Pepper long gone, having not be able to deal with the side effects that came with dating a superhero. The Accords had been meant to be a break for him. To let the proper authorities wrestle with Rogers and his merry band of followers while he stepped back and focused on his mental health and inventions for a while, only to be called in for the direst of situations. Accountably, responsibly, checks and balances. That's what the Accords were supposed to be. Tony had been expected some resistance from the other Avengers but nothing on the scale of what happened. And when Barnes got involved things went to hell in a pretty little handbasket very quickly. Tony would admit he could have reacted better in Siberia, but he had never aimed to kill Barnes or Rogers. In that moment he had wanted to knock Barnes out before tying him up and locking him away forever. He had expected them to fight back. He had never expected them to try to kill him. But that's what happened. The two super soldiers limped away into the sunset and left him bleeding out in a dead suit with four broken rib bones, a punctured lung, internal bleeding and a broken arc reactor in freezing temperatures. Tony had thought he was done for as he watched his quinjet fly away with his blurring vision. The last thing he saw before blacking out had been a portal open before him in blaze of orange sparks and a tall figure running towards him.

Friday, bless her, had started sending SOS's to the Avengers after she lost contact with the suit. When none of them were able to help for various reasons she started going down the list of potential recruits, Stephen Strange being at the top.

Once Tony awoke a week later, he found himself for the first time faced with someone as equally stubborn as him. Stephen refused to leave his side when he was awake and often had to force Tony to sleep with magic. The sorcerer didn't need to use his genius to pick up on the inventors' self-destructive habits and refused to witness who he thought to be earth's best defender against physical threats make anything less than a full recovery. The two men hit it off quickly the weeks Tony was in the hospital, bonding over their shared sense of humor, intelligence, pain, sense of duty and above all, facial hair. After Tony's release Stephen started to drop by the tower to help him work on redrafting the Accords. The booklet he had handed out to the then Avengers in that faithful meeting hadn't been the final product. Not by a long shot. As the two worked and continued to get to know each other and grow their friendship over the months they migrated around the tower. Starting at a random meeting room before moving to Tony's living room, then to his lab and finally to his bedroom where they partook in activities that definitely weren't related to the Avengers. The rest is history.

"Not a clue," Tony mused with a light shrug as he watched six more security guards pour into the lobby, Happy leading the way.

"How dare you!" the walrus of a man roared. "Don't you know who you're messing with!"

Happy, not impressed in the least, pushed the man against the wall face first and cuffed his hands behind his back.

"Please!" the woman pleaded as she was also handcuffed, her eyes directed at the cameras above her. "You're our only hope! We're not strong enough to fight Dumbledore!"

Stephen hissed a curse under his breath as he suddenly straightened, amusement gone.

"Does the name mean something to you?" Tony asked as he raised an eyebrow as he leaned back to grab the now still hand on his neck and gave it a squeeze.

"Sadly yes," the taller man replied looking annoyed and resigned. "Can you have them brought into a private meeting room?"

"Anything for you baby," Tony answered with a smirk but didn't make a move to do anything knowing Friday was listening to their conversation and would make the proper arrangements.

The term of endearment had Stephen shooting an unimpressed look at his fiancé but a slight quirk of his lips gave away his true emotions.

"Our uninvited guests will be arriving in room seven on the twelfth floor in approximately four minutes," Friday informed them as Tony stood and stretched. Today was supposed to be a quite work day in the lab but from experience Tony knew that wouldn't be happening anymore so he shut everything down and saved his projects before taking Stephens hand and leading him out the door.

"So, who's Dumbledore?" the inventor asked as the couple walked into the waiting elevator.

"Remember what I told you about the different branches of magic of earth?" Stephen inquired as he leaned his back against the wall.

"The basics. Everyone is capable of learning to harness the dimensional energy around us all to a point and but there also rare cases of people who are born with a pocket of unnamed and unstudied energy inside them. They've been in hiding since the witch hunts and have their own governments and communities."

"That energy is just called magic," Stephen said with a shrug. "Sorcerers have been trying to get the chance to study it for ages but the people who use it are a prickly bunch with a superiority complex. They think because of their abilities they're somehow better than everyone. To be fair that belief system is on a septum. Extremist believe people without magic should be slaves to those that do and stripped of their human rights. The majority look down on people without magic as we would a child. Fondly, but that "muggles", don't give me that look I didn't make the name up, will never be on the same level as them intelligence and power wise."

Tony snorted. "And these are the same people that have been hiding from the rest of the world for six hundred years because they're scared of "muggles"?"

"Yes. Their hypocrisy isn't lost on me either. There's a group in every magical government called Secret Keepers whose main job it is to study and hide anything that can challenge their way of thinking from the rest of the magic population, includes those running the governments. You'll find that things such as nukes, the space race, The Avengers and especially the Mystics Arts are completely unknown to their communities. The fact that sorcery is in many ways so much more powerful than magic irks them and that anymore can learn even more so."

"And this brings us back to Dumbledore how?"

"Dumbledore is arguably the most powerful magic user alive. At the moment he's the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the UK and he's always been at least a teacher there. Somehow as a geacher he keeps finding himself at the center of the fight against every dark wizard produced in the last hundred years. To be fair the two most dangerous dark lords of the last century have come from the UK and both were connected to him, one a former lover and the latest a former student."

"And this guy is bad news why?"

"In the last war, little over ten years ago, when the government fell Dumbledore was the one to put together an underground residence movement and fight back. After the war he refused all the high positions of power offered to him claiming he just wanted to teach and cultivate young minds. But everyone who ended up taking those high positions of power constantly come to Dumbledore for advice to the point it's as if they're taking orders from him."

"So, he's basically the puppet master of the entire country with no checks and balances all the while playing the innocent school master."

"Precisely," Stephen nodded grimly. "He has good intentions, but all that power has been starting to go to his head a bit. He has trust issues a mile wide and believes the safest hands are his own."

"Where have I heard all that before," Tony muttered slightly haunted as he tryed to banish images of Siberia from his head.

Stephen gave Tony's hand a squeeze to help bring his significant other back to reality as they approached the door their unwanted guests would be behind.

"Why don't you wait in the monitoring room down the hall and listen. Let me deal with this if it has to do with magic. Life would be hell if people found out attacking your security guards got them your personal attention."

"Sure," Tony said with a shrug. He once would have argued but had learned he didn't need to do everything himself anymore. He could trust Stephen to handle this.

The sorcerer gave his fiancé a quick peck on the lips before turning on his heel dramatically and pushing the door open.

"Finally!" the walrus of a man snarled from where he was handcuffed to the table in front of him next to his wife. "We've been waiting here thirty minutes!"

Stephen didn't bother to point out that they had been waiting no where near that long and even if they had it would have been a completely acceptable amount of time considering their entrance. No, best to just cut to the chase and find out what they wanted.

"My name is Stephen Strange," the taller man introduced himself as he sat across from them. "Current Sorcerer Supreme, the magic expert on the Avengers and the Fiancé of the man you so rudely and violently demanded to see. It's only because you mentioned Dumbledore that you're not in a jail cell right now for multiple charges including assault. As it stands your still being arrested but whether or not we press charges or just requests restraining orders relies entirely on the story your about to tell me. So, who are you and what problems do you have with Dumbledore?"

Stephen didn't miss the flash of disgust in their eyes when he mentioned he and Tony were engaged. He had to quickly press down the familiar rush of anger that rose in him every time a homophobe crossed his path. People were allowed to disagree with his life choices but were not allowed to try to belittle him for them, bully him or try to try to force their own beliefs upon him. Things that the couple in front of him had yet to try to do.

The man made to start yelling again but was stopped by a quick look from his wife. He kept his mouth shut but continued to glare and grind his teeth together angerly.

"My name is Petunia Dursley and this is my husband Vernon. We live in Surry with our son in the UK. About ten years ago my sister Lily Potter and her husband were killed and Dumbledore forcer her son Harry upon us citing that we were his last living relatives. We wanted nothing to do with the boy. I washed my hands of my sister and her…magic long ago. We don't believe in such nonsense. We tried to call social workers, leave him at orphanages, and many other…places. He always ended up back on our step a few hours later and whoever had taken him had no memory of him or us. He turned into a horrible child. Pulling nasty tricks and terrorizing our son. We tried to stamp it out of him with no luck. It finally came to a head last July when the boy turned eleven and got his invitation to that _school_. We refused to let him go, he frightens us enough without knowing how to use his unnaturalness, of course we didn't want him to learn how to use it. The school constantly stalked us before sending one of their henchmen to attack us and take the boy away. Our Dudley ended up with a pig tail! A tail! We paid thousands to have it removed. Now they are forcing us to take him back when the school year ends! He's was dangerous enough before he left but he'll be the devil incarnated now! We knew no normal proper person could take on Dumbledore and win so we went searching for anyone on the boy's father side that could and eventually found an old diary of my sisters which you might find interesting. The book is in my purse with the proper page marked."

With a flip of Stephens hand said mentioned purse appeared on the table. The Dursley jumped and scooted as far away from the sorcerer they could, a whole new hatred in their eyes. Stephen huffed impatiently, Petunia's little speech already reviling their feeling on the magic. The Sorcerer was more concerned that he recognized the boys name. Harry Potter. The famed baby that had somehow stopped Voldemort in his tracks. Why was Dumbledore so insistent upon him being raiser by people who obviously hated him, last living relatives or not.

Stephen opened the worn diary to page with a sticky note pocking out of it and started to read. The more he read the harder it was to keep his emotions in check and his face blank. Tony had people knocking on the door almost every day claiming he was the father of their child, but this seemed very real. While he wouldn't put it passed the Dursley's to try to scam then while getting rid of Harry at the same time a quick sweep with his magic confirmed the book was fifteen years old, this particular passage had been written twelve years ago and it had in fact been written by Lily Potter. Stephen was suddenly very happy Tony had decided to wait outside.

"Did you bring a DNA sample?" The sorcerer asked monotonously as he struggled to contain his inner panic.

"Yes!" the woman answered desperately, falling for Stephens ruse that he didn't believe them. "In my purse, in a plastic baggie."

Stephen quickly fished out the bag, finding a comb and toothbrush in even smaller bags inside. The DNA samples were old, presumably from before Harry went to school, but for his magic it would be enough.

"How long were you planning to stay in New York?" Stephen asked as he stood, taking the plastic baggie with him.

"A whole week. We just arrived today."

"Good. Either I can place you on house arrest here in the tower until this issue is resolved for have the authorities escort you a jail cell to await trail on assault charges and trespassing. You're choice."

This time Vernon did start yelling again, none of his wife's pleading able to stop him and was dragged from the room by a group an annoyed officer's. Petunia shook like a leaf but agreed to house arrest, if only to see this horrible situation come to an end as quickly as possible.

Stephen waiting until both brits as exited the room before making his way to Tony, finding the inventor lounging as agreed upon in a room down the hall.

"I remember Lily Potter," Tony informed Stephen as the sorcerer took a seat and grabbed the shorter man's hand. It had been awhile since Stephen had seen Tony this stressed. "We met at a bar in London at least a decade ago. I was drunk off my ass, she was hot, and I hit on her. To my surprise she could keep up with me better than most of my flings and had a killer sense of humor. We saw each other a few more times over the course of a couple months until she didn't show up to one of our dates one night. Didn't leave a message and never answered any of my calls. Frustrated, I did a little research and found out she was married. I never tried to get in contact with her after that and she never contacted me."

Stephen rubbed calming circles on Tony's palm knowing the genius in front of him was putting the missing pieces together himself. The inventor took a deep shaky breath before continuing.

"That dairy says Harry is my son doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"This is most likely the real deal?"

"Yes."

"Not matter if the kid is mine or not that despicable couple have probably been abusing the boy and we're gonna do something about it?"

"Yes."

Tony fell silent as he eyed the dairy Stephen had placed on the table when he entered the room wearily, fearful of what he would find within.

"Why don't we start with testing the DNA before you read that?" Stephen asked, pulling his fiancé's attention back to him. "The diary can wait until your feeling better but I'm afraid before we do anything else, we need an indisputable answer."

Tony nodded and leaned back as Stephen stood and pulled the baggie of Harry's samples from his pocket. A few dramatic waves of the sorcerer's hands and some golden sparks had script in an ancient language the inventor couldn't hope to decipher appearing before their eyes. While the former neurosurgeons' eyes skimmed the script Tony's thoughts were buzzing a million miles per hour, creating in his mind the numerous appearances an eleven-year-old son of his and Lily's could take.

"What's the verdict doc?" Tony asked, his bouncing leg a sign of his fragile patience waning.

Stephen slowly turned towards his partner, the weary and gentle look in his eyes answer enough but Tony still needed to hear him say it out loud.

"Harry Potter is your son."


	3. Chapter 2

Harry James Potter watched with no small amount of dread as the Hogsmeade Train Station disappeared around the corner, the tall towers of Hogwarts peeking over the trees vanishing as well. The first place Harry could ever remember that made him feel safe, comfortable and _free_ now nothing more than a memory until the summers end.

Blinking hard to dispel the depressing thoughts the eleven-year-old boy turned from the window to glance at his fellow Ravenclaw Hermione Granger sitting next to him. The bushy haired girl had been the only friend Harry made on the train to school almost a year ago to be sorted into his own house, so he stuck to her like glue. The mother hen in Hermione kept Harry's more self-destructive habits in check and in return Harry tried to do the same. It also helped that Hermione was the only other Ravenclaw in his year that wanted to attempt to keep up with muggle schoolwork so the two often studied together. They were no where near where their muggle counterparts would be in their education but at least the duo wasn't falling a great distance behind either. If Harry or Hemione decided to compete secondary muggle education after graduating Hogwarts they would at least have a foundation to stand on.

Sitting across from him was Ron Weasley, the first friend Harry had ever made. Steadfast and loyal to a fault the pure blood had stayed by Harry's side no matter how much their friendship had been tested. Ron had stayed by Harry even when the green-eyed boy had been sorted into Ravenclaw, made friends with Slytherins and when Harry tried to push all his friends away when things got too overwhelming. The freckled red head Gryffindor was currently pouring over a chess game he was playing with their other male companion.

Draco Malfoys inclusion into Harry's friend group had come at a surprise to everyone at Hogwarts. Rather than throw childish insults back at Draco's ignorant blood supremacist views like most children their age Harry combated it with wit and logic, calming talking circles around the blond. Draco's response was to do research in the library and then write home to his parents for information, determined to beat Harry at his own game. Unlike Dudley who had almost broken Harry's nose when the boy tried to use the same tactics to combat the Islamophobia his cousin had picked up from his parents.

By Halloween Draco had realized there was no hard factually tested evidence to support that magicians born to magical parents were more powerful than those born to muggles. After coming to this hard realization Draco had started following Hermione around to study her and gather his own evidence because she's the most powerful and successful muggleborn in their year. If the blond could figure out how Hermione was beating him in all their classes he could figure out how the other muggleborns were using magic too. Frustratingly Draco couldn't find anyway the younger witch was less powerful or intelligent than her pureblood counterparts. No ways she might be stealing magic from others. Her success was all due to natural talent, passion, discipline, hard work and a ridiculously long attention span for an eleven-year-old.

The real change in their Slytherin friend had come when he'd arrived back at school after Christmas break. To the surprise of no one Lucius Malfoy hadn't taken kindly to his son's new questions and doubts. The Draco that returned to school was pale, quiet, skinny and jumped at the slightest sound. Even though the blond hid the evidence of the abuse well Harry, who had also been on the receiving end of violence from the people who were supposed to love you, recognized the symptoms immediately and had marched Draco into Professor Flitwick's office.

Soon Draco was undergoing a detailed medical exam in hospital wing which releveled horrifying evidence of the blond being subjected to the curciatus curse. While the heads of house and Madam Pomfrey were having a hushed discussion in the med witch's office Harry, Hermione and Ron had been there when the blonds stoic mask finally cracked and the eleven-year-old started to sob. It hadn't been the kids who Draco's parents had pushed him to be friends with since he was little that were there to support him at his worst moment. It was the people who the boy's parents and taught him to hate. The same children he had harassed and bullied all year long were the ones to hold him unjudging while he cried for his broken childhood.

After that Draco stuck with Harry group as if he'd always been apart of it. He was there when Norbert the dragon was born. He was there beside Harry to face the shade of Voldemort in the forbidden forest, and instead of running like he so desperately wanted to him stayed by his friends' side even if all he could do was whimper pathetically. He was there by Harry's side when they once again faced Voldemort, this time at the end of the third-floor corridor. Again, he had been practically useless and in the way during the encounter but at least Harry hadn't had to face his parent's murderer alone.

By the end of the school year the ministry had relived Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy of guardianship and any legal parental rights they had over Draco. Narcissa could petition to gain custody of Draco again given she divorce her husband and could provide for them both but so far she hadn't made any effort to do so. Out of fear of her husband or because she just didn't want to Harry didn't know, but he pretended he thought the first option for Draco's sake. Sadly, but no surprising, the Malfoy wealth and sway once again kept Lucius out of Azkaban.

Severus Snape was next in line to gain custody of Draco as the boy's godfather but considering the man's dark past and pervious ties to Lucius the ministry was understandably reluctant to award him guardianship. Harry had mixed feeling about that. Snape had been outright hostile to him at the beginning of the year, but the bullying had faded as the months wore on to a subtle kind of favoritism. Not the disgustingly unfair kind the Slytherin head of house showered on the snakes. More that he now tolerated, maybe even accepted, Harry's and his friend's presence more than students from the other houses. Harry thought it had to do with their friendship with Draco because no matter how many bad things could be said about Snape no one who knew him could deny he had a soft spot for the blond boy.

As Snape's petition for guardianship of Draco was still ongoing that left the Slytherin homeless for the summer. Molly and Arthur had offered to foster Draco, but the ministry had shot that down on the grounds of the ongoing blood feud between the Weasleys and Malfoys. The ministry wisely didn't want to show support for one side or the other. Hermione had written to her parents asking if they could take her friend in, but they had shot that suggestion down as well. Mrs. And Mr. Granger understandably didn't feel comfortable leaving their pre-teen daughter alone for hours at a time while they were at work with another pre-teen boy they had never met. Near the end of the school year when all signs were looking towards the ministry assigning a stranger to foster Draco weirdly enough Professor McGonagall stepped up and offered to take the Slytherin in. Draco was just taking the train with his friends to give the Professor a few hours to wrap things up at Hogwarts.

As bizarre as it was Draco wasn't looking a gift horse in the mouth. He'd spend his summer practicing quidditch on the grounds of the Professor's private Scottish cottage, running awoke around Hogwarts when McGonagall made her tri-weekly visits to prepare for the next year, have access to the other teachers for homework help and multiple chances to visit Hagrid all summer long. All things said and done Harry was extremely jealous.

No matter how much Harry had begged and Flitwick had preached his case Dumbledore would not budge. Harry must return to the Dursleys. And whatever Dumbledore said goes. The same ministry that had gone to bat against one of the wealthiest pure-blood lords for Draco called Harry an troubled and attention seekingf because that was what Dumbledore had implied he was when Flitwick had tried to take Harry's case to a higher power. At the very least Harry had found an adult he could count on in Flitwick and he also suspected in McGonagall no matter how much their hands were tied on this particular issue.

"Pawn 3 to D 8," Ron said as a sly smirk crossed his face. The red heads old weary pawn moved slowly across the space to before proceeding to beat Draco's last rook to smithereens.

"Checkmate!" the Gryffindor crowed, his eyes alight with delight.

"How!" the blond snared as he threw his hands up in the air in frustration. No matter how many attempts he made he had never been able to beat Ron. Hermione and Harry have given up months ago, content to let their companion enjoy the one area where he could beat his friends in tests of intelligence. While Ron was in no means dumb he was friends with the top three students of their class and sometimes was prone to jealousy and self-esteem issues. Winning rounds of chess against them gave Ron the confidence boost he needed and the two Ravenclaws were happy to let him have it. On the other hand, chess was an area that Draco also excelled in and he was determined to beat Ron at least once.

"You made a mistake when you moved your knight. You were so overeager to put me in check that you left an opening."

"Drat. Harry, you wanna play?"

"No thanks, I've been beaten enough in the last week by you guys."

"Fine, be that way. Fancy a game Hermione?"

"No. I'm bored of chess, you two play nothing but. I got a deck of Uno cards in bag if you guys are interested."

The reluctant echo of agreement that rang out throughout the compartment soon turned to laughter and merriment as the Hogwarts express raced towards London. If the four friends knew how much the future of their friendship would be tested over the summer they might have been a bit more sober. But for now the pre-teens were happy to enjoy each other's company and pretend the train ride would never end.

 **Authors Note:**

Sorry for the short chapter but that seemed like such a great place to end. I don't know when I'll update next. I'll start writing the next chapter tonight when things are fresh but after that my main priority is to finish playing Pokemon Shield and making whatever changes to my Pokemon story I need to based on what I discover in the game. So while I'm about to get a month off for winter break don't hold your breath for the next chapter.

That being said I'm blow away by the amount of love this story has been getting extremely thankful for it!

Remember to review! It makes me happy...


	4. Chapter 3

Standing under a glass awning to escape the early summer rain showers Harry felt dread pool in his stomach as he watched his uncle's car pull up next him. His friends had already been picked up at Platform 9 ¾ leaving Harry on his own.

The car pulled to a sudden stop next to Harry, splashing water on the boys' shoes. Uncle Vernon was quick to exit the vehicle and grab Harry's truck from him before shooing the boy in the car. Thrown off by the lack of obvious hostility Harry did what he was told, nestling Hedwig's cage in his lap carefully. Another thing that was strange. Why wasn't his uncle insisting that Hedwig ride in the boot with the luggage instead of in his pristine car interior?

Before Harry could wrap his brain around the sudden weird development Vernon was in the driver's seat and pulling out onto the street. The car's stereo was turned on loudly which Harry took as a signal to stay quiet. Not that he would have talked given the opportunity to anyways. He'd learned long ago that the safest option for him around his relatives was to stay a mute as the grave. The weird thing was Vernon wasn't making nasty comments about the news on the radio as he so loved to do. Not even mentions of Brexit could loosen his tongue.

After about five minutes of driving Uncle Vernon broke the silence. The stereo was turned off and Vernon's hands clutched the steering wheel tightly as he considered what he was about to say. He hadn't even started talking and his face was already going purple. Harry twiddled with the folded piece of parchment Hermione had slipped in his pocket at the train station nervously as he waited.

"You are to stay silent as listen to what I have to say. No objections," Vernon spat as he glared back at Harry through the review mirror. Harry nodded along nervously.

"While you were away, your Aunt and I discovered that your mother had an affair."

"She would nev…" Harry started angrily.

SILENCE!"

Hedwig started in her cage at the sudden noise causing Harry to almost drop her and Vernon to swerve the car. The resounding look of fury Harry received for that was enough to cause him to angrily clamp his lips shut. He knew if pushed far enough Uncle Vernon wouldn't hesitate to toss Hedwig out the moving car and he was certainly already close to reaching his threshold.

"Choose to believe what you want but the best DNA tests available on the market have already been conducted and all show the same results. The woman your mother married isn't your father and your real one is picking you up today. Custody papers have already been signed and Petunia and I have received a good sum of money for putting up with your hooligan ways all these years. What's done is done and you can't change it."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. His aunt and uncle had sold him! To who? Had supporters of Voldemort tricked them? Or maybe they had just pawned him off to anyone who would be willing to pay. While the thought was frightening it wasn't at all surprising after the scare Hagrid had given his relatives that summer.

Or maybe, just maybe, was Uncle Vernon telling the truth.

Harry was a smart boy. He was placed in Ravenclaw for a reason. After pouring over as many pictures of his parents as he could get his hands-on Harry would admit he'd had his own suspicions for a while now.

Harry had inherited his mother's eyes and the majority of her facial structure. But his wide smile and wavy brown hair didn't quite add up to James Potter's mischievous smirk and untamable wind-swept black locks.

It didn't help that no one could tell him about the years after his parents left school other than the first thing they did was get married after only ten months of dating and dove headfirst into the war. And apparently his mother had hated his father with a passion up until the end of their sixth year. None of which was confidence inspiring.

But to have Harry's own private dark thoughts confirmed and then rubbed in his face by Uncle Vernon was slathering salt into the wound. Who was apparently also completely ignorant to Harry's inner turmoil and he carried on without hesitation. Or most likely he just didn't care.

"All things considered this is a good deal for you to. Your dad and his husband might not be the same brand as freakish as you, but they are still freakish all the same. You should all get on well. And they have plenty of money so you can have a nice fresh start in America away from all the rabble your mother loved so much."

"That being said I'm not afraid to ruin things for you if you so much as peep that you had anything less than a perfectly normal childhood. One hint that Petunia and I didn't treat you well and that Headmaster of your finds out where you are. And all your mothers old friends learn what a slut she was. Understood?"

"Understood," Harry ground out angrily as he glared ahead. He could already feel his magic bubbling dangerously close to the surface, only needing a spark to ignite it.

So, he was headed to America. A foreign county on a different continent. That would make things a lot harder to get back home. He couldn't just run away. There was an entire ocean separating him and the magical community of the British Isles. And what did it mean that his dad wasn't the same kind of freakish as him? Was he a wizard or not?

A traitorous part of him questioned if he really wanted to run away. If he really wanted to come back. He had dreamed of a mysterious relative coming and whisking him away for as long as he could remember. Now here one was, and he was angry because they held the wrong kind of connection to him? Even an infuriated Harry could admit that was childish. Plus, he hadn't even met the man. The least he could do for the person that was going to revoke his status as an orphan and take him in was give them a chance and hear their side of the story.

The only thing holding Harry back was his friends. He had exhausted all there was to learn at Hogwarts about his parents and in the process had nearly been killed multiple times. While it was true no place had felt more like home to him the castle didn't have much competition considering who he would be going home to at the end of the year. But that was changing now. And there were plenty of different schools of magic in North America that he could go to without Voldemort and his parent's legacy dogging his every step. He could be Harry, just Harry.

Harry was startled out of his thoughts as the car came to a stop and Uncle Vernon put it into park. But why were they stopped? They were still easily an hour away from Private Drive.

"Out! Out boy!"

Clutching Hedwig's cage close Harry stepped out into the drizzle. Uncle Vernon quickly grabbed his truck and ushered them to the front of what looked to be a ginormous hexagonal shape glass skyscraper.

Waiting for them by the door was a tall man who looked vaguely familiar. His dark brown hair was accented white stands of hair by his temples and a perfectly trimmed goatee. The man's steely light blue eyes pinner Uncle Vernon down and refused to stray. He wore simple fitted dark jeans and a gray button down. Though Harry couldn't place him the boy was sure he'd seen the man somewhere before.

"Do you need someone to park your car in the garage?" the man asked in a deep American baritone voice that cut Harry to the very bone.

"No, no," Vernon answered quickly as he wiped sweat off his face and refused the look the newcomer in the eye. To Harry's shock he realized his Uncle was scared of the newcomer.

"I-I did my part. I dropped the boy off. We already signed the papers. What more do you need from me?"

"Nothing. I just thought you would want to say goodbye to the child you raised. Though of course I'm not sure why I expected anything less from someone who seems so eager to be rid of this fine young gentleman."

"W-we already said our goodbyes in the car. Right boy?"

"Right," Harry agreed as quickly as he could. When Uncle Vernon left there was a good chance Harry would never see him again. Uncertain as the future was Harry wanted nothing more than for the moment to come where he would never have to see his uncle again.

Uncle Vernon nodded frantically and without another word turned his back on Harry to climb into his still running car. Neither Harry nor the stranger took their eyes off the vehicle until it vanished around the bend.

Watching his Uncle leave made Harry feel lighter in a way he never had before. For good or for bad the chapter of his life that was the Dursley was officially closed. No more unless chores that were made impossible to finish on purpose. No more being the scapegoat. No more Harry-hunting. At least not by the Dursleys hands.

Turning to face the stranger Harry noted that the man standing next to him looked like a weight had been lifted off him also. His stony face softened, his hands fell to his sides from where they had been pressed behind his back and the mans icy eyes seemed to melt into crystal clear waters as they shifted to meet Harry's.

"Did that nitwit actually tell you what's going on?"

Unable to help himself a small hesitant smile crept along Harry's face. It seemed he and the stranger shared a common enemy. It quickly vanished though as reality set in about who he very well could be facing. It had been a long time since Harry felt this shy or self-conscious.

"Are you my dad?" Harry asked hesitantly as he chewed on his bottom lip, unable to look the man in the eye.

"Step-dad," came the gentle correction. "My name's Stephen."

"Ow."

Right. His dad was gay.

"Is…that a problem?" Now Stephen wasn't the one who could meet Harry's eyes. Instead of looking like the unmovable force he had earlier in front of Uncle Vernon, Stephen now seemed fearful. Like Harry was about to sentence him to death. Stephens hands were shaking like leaves in a storm that Harry only now noticed had diagonal scars running along each bone finger from the wrist to his last knuckle.

"No!" Harry reassured Stephen swiftly, almost shouting in his haste. Coming off as homophobic in front of his new LGBTQ family was the last thing Harry wanted.

"…Everything is just happening so fast and…it's a lot to take in."

"Of course," Stephen breathed. "I'm afraid I got one last large surprise for you today and then you can have some time to adjust. Why don't we head upstairs and meet your dad?"

"Yeah. Yeah let's do that."

Even though pulling Harry's truck seemed to be painful for Stephens scared hands the man refused to let Harry take it saying that he trusted himself even less with Hedwig and refused to let Harry carry both. So, Harry awkwardly followed his new Stepdad as he lugged Harry's things into a private elevator before swiping his key card through the lock and requesting the top floor.

The room the lift left the duo in took Harry's breath away. It screamed modern and luxury while still coming off as cozy and comfortable. To the left was a small chef's kitchen with island seating. To the right the open concept room expanded first to a modest wooden live edge dining table that could sit six. To the far right of the room was the living space. The couch and loveseat were made of a plain white fabric that a bone dead tired Harry wanted nothing more than to sink right into. In the corner was a brown leather recliner. The space was given life by the accompaniment of bold colored blue, green, yellow, orange and red pillows, wall art and an enormous rug. The entire wall facing the elevator was made of glass that opened up into a large balcony that had views of downtown London that included the River Thames and The Shard.

"That was fast," Came a new voice from down the hallway to the right. "I wasn't expecting you guys for another ten minutes."

"Dursley was early and only stuck around long enough for Harry to get out of the car." Stephen answered curtly.

"Why couldn't we have just gone and picked him up ourselves? It would have saved us all from having to see his ugly mug again."

"Because you would have attracted to much attention," Stephen deadpanned as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

And it was the most obvious thing in the world. Because the new voice, Harry's dad, had finally come into view.

Suddenly Harry knew where he had seen Stephen before. Suddenly his conception made sense at least from his dads' side. His dad had been an infamous playboy more than a decade ago before giving that lifestyle up shortly after Harry would have been born. It made sense why Uncle Vernon had claimed his dad was just as freakish as Harry but still not a wizard.

Because across the room, hopeful bright brown eyes fixed on Harry, with a large infectious smile Harry himself had inherited, was Tony Stark.

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

 **The moment you guys have all been waiting for is finally here! Was it worth the wait?**


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